Friday, April 22, 2011

Do you remember these from the early 80's. I didn't take a before, but it was a med brown stain and very dated looking. I found it at a garage sale for a buck. From the beginning I knew I wanted it yellow with crystal knobs, the birdcage vinyl was last minute. I was planning on selling it in my etsy shop, but it was just too beat up. So I did a cute birdcage vinyl piece to put over the dings and fell in love. I think it is sooooooo cute. It makes me happy just looking at it.

I'm going to hang it on the wall in my craftroom. It is the perfect size to store all my stamp pads on the inside. Don't overlook those outdated wood pieces they can definately be redone and have someone fall in love all over again.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

My best friend in the entire world was gracious enough to move there a few years back. We always try to see each other at least once a year. Savannah Ga in April is much improved on the old formula of pheonix az in August! Not my favorite place that she has ever lived. One of her best friends will also be there and she will be my 2nd best friend by the end of the 5 days. I am sure.

My best friends name is Kathy and we have been friends since high school youth group days. I was a few years older and we lost touch after I graduated from high school, but then a few years later we ended up at the same college and became roommates for 2 1/2 years. Although she is a pastor's wife and has moved quite a bit we still see each other at least once a year and talk on the phone lots. I simply love her, she is the best friend in the world. A few years back she moved to Fl and lived there for just over a year. She didn't know anyone and became friends with Christie immediately. It was a God friendship because Kathy was diagnosed with breast cancer soon after moving there. Christie was there for her the whole year and I will love her forever simply for that fact alone, plus she is obviously incredible. I was able to help her with one chemo treatment but Christie was THERE for her the whole year. I can not wait for our 5 days of girlypalooza and assume I will return home with another awesome friend.

I have lots of furniture posts and craft posts when I return. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

So no matter what I did I couldn't get all three to hang. The white kept falling right before I took the picture. It's the lightest too!

So there they are, if I stop being incredibly frustrated I will try to hang the 3rd one again and snap a picture.

Ok so I got a second wind and here is the picture.

I'd show you the rest of her room, but she would have to clean it. ;)

So here are my tips for hanging them. I took about 7 or 8 of the straight pins and put them in a little space about half way down. Then I took a length of beading string and ran it in and out of the pins and then tied a knot. Then I pushed the pins all the way down. I took a clear pushpin and put it in the ceiling and tied the string around the pin and pushed that in the wall. It didn't work with the white kissing ball because I had only used 3 pins. You really need to use 7 or 8 and that did the trick.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

This time we decided to learn how to make and decorate sugar cookies. My friend Vicki made all the cookies and she has the recipe listed on her blog. They were delicious. She also researched how to do the piping to make beautifully decorated cookies. It was very fun, yummy and informative. I love having a craft group for this very reason. Cookie decorating has always intimidated me. I learn by doing, so when vicki picked this months topic I was very excited. Here are some pictures from the group.

This is just a small sampling of the cookies she had ready.

Here we are in the process

The beautiful results. It is amazingly easy to do. Vicki has all the instructions, so you can just pop over to her blog here and find out the details. None of these are my cookies. There the other ladies in the group, mine turned out pretty but these were definately the knockouts. I will definately start making these for holidays now.

Another thing I love about having a craft group is that we are all good in very different areas.

Vicki is the baker/cook

Chantal is the seamstress, quilter, handicraft woman. She has a beautiful blog with her quilts and tutorials here.

Pilar is more like me, a jill of all trades, but expert at none. Although I have to say she is quite good at jewelry making. That will be next month. She does not have a blog but we are working on her.

Debi is adopting internationally and has a blog concerning that rollercoaster and she also makes and sells adoption jewelry in her etsy shop.

Jane is an awesome, incredible muralist and faux painter, but she is also one of those gals that can do ANYTHING! She really impresses me with ther "I can do it attitude".

Craft group usually lasts around 2 to 2 1/2 hrs. But this week we all got to know each other a bit better and felt more comfortable and we were there for 4 hrs, most of it chatting. I soooooo love all my crafty girls. Thanks for coming and sharing your skills and lives with me each month.

One more point I would like to make. This is something that I have wanted to do for quite awhile, but was hesitant to ask anyone, you know what every single lady was thrilled that I thought of her. I think lots of people would love to do this, but don't feel comfortable starting it. We also have someone starting in the summer without craft skills, but she just wants to hang out. Not everyone comes every month, I purposely asked more people then I thought would be the perfect amount so that people could come and go as they needed to . I love it, I hope this encourages you to start one if you have been thinking about it.

Friday, April 8, 2011

This little chair has been used many different ways in our family. I bought it at a garage sale about 10 years ago, it came with a desk. It's child size so it worked great for my kids. Now whenever my niece in nephew visit it gets used quite a bit. It just needed a bit of a revamp. You can see all the different colors in the first picture that it has been.

It's been red and then blue and I think I started painted it off white or beige at one point. Anyways it is as solid as rock. I decided to repaint it and add a little pizazz to it this time. I spraypainted it black gloss and then did a vinyl cutout on my cricut. Vinyl is so awesome. I thought about using the vinyl as a stencil and painting it, but really when I'm not trying to shabbychic something I really like the way the vinyl works. Very crisp clear lines.

I decided on the b because our last name starts with a b and both my niece and nephews names start with b. The b is from the lyrical letters cartridge and the scrolls are from home accents cartridge.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

This is the last kissing ball. Purple tulle with butterflies. I will be hanging the 3 of these together in a corner in my daughter's room. I will try to show that tomorrow.

But here is the kissing ball. For this one I didn't have a paper punch so I used my cricut. I love my cricut for sizing, but find punches alot easier. So if I have a punch I will use it. It is the same process as before. Two pieces of sparkly tulle with a butterfly on top, put in place by a simple pin. All the kissing balls were done the same. Some I used two layers of tulle and some just one, it just depended on the look.

It's a very easy and simple process. If you have to buy everything it is still cheap because I just waited till styrofoam balls, or paper or tulle were on sale and bought everything then. I don't know if you are new to crafting or have already figured this out. Pretty much everything in craft stores goes on sale in a cycle, so if you can wait it out. I also use the 40 to 50 percent off coupons if something is not on sale. Happy crafting!

Friday, April 1, 2011

I wasn't planning on doing this post but Kimba at a soft place to land is doing a link party for decorating with maps. Well as a proud Texan, I of course have a texas room, don't you? Pretty much everyone does here. I found an old school map from the 1930's and had it framed. The top of the niche is decorated with my kids old cowboy boots from preschool. The niche is done in a venetian plaster. I love it. I'll have to show you my texas family room sometime. Not now though because my camera lens was murdered by my roomba and as you can see my pictures aren't that great.

I also use them in plates around the house. I love old vintage plates in vignettes.